People ask me all the time about research and how
I go about it. All I can say is you need a lot of time to read and now
if you are a computer buff every thing is on the web, however with me
I am not computer minded so still do a lot of research the long way.
My friend Don who I mentioned earlier does a lot for me as he has access
to the various online institutes through out America and also it was
passion of his to be involved in this kind of work.
Research is only what you make it and every little
piece of info can make or break a case. Example with our finding of
Beaufighter A19-130 in 60 meters of water. We researched this
for a year and came up with pages of info on the squadron, pilot, aero
plane and the particulars of the crash event, all these put together
made a very successful finding considering that the first attempt was
a failure. I t was not until our next attempt a year later when we had
additional info and this info was only a scrap but when added to the
file made all the difference, also we used some new equipment and both
there's combined enabled us to find the plane in the first 10 minutes
of operation. This particular A/C is in remarkable condition and I include
here a small piece on its history and also some pictures of the plane
underwater.
Beaufighter A19-130 was assigned to 30 Squadron moved from Bohl River, near Townsville,
Queensland commencing on 17th August 1942 to Port Moresby and then on
September 12 Ward's Strip 8 km north east of Port Moresby. From here
they moved north in to Vivagani on Goodenough Island arriving there
on the 28th of July, 1943. On the 8th June of the same year, W/C Clarrie
P Glasscock DFC took over as 30 Squadron's new commander and the Squadron's
war time role was to blockade Japanese seaborne operations and to attack
Japanese held airfields particular in the New Britain area.
A19-130 was a brand new Beaufighter belonged to 30
squadron and took off at 0920 hours on the 16th of August, 1943 from
Vivagani on Goodenough for fuel consumption and ornament test,
basically a test flight.
Several minutes after becoming airborne and at a height
of 1200 feet the aircraft's star board motor failed while crossing the
west coast of near by Fergusson Island. Not being able to maintain height
with a full war load, it was decided to ditch in near by Hughes Bay.
After flying inland for a short period of time, they crossed the north
coast of the Island at low altitude and prepared for a water landing.
The forward escape hatch was jettisoned at 100 ft above the Bunai River
mouth and power taken off 20 ft above the sea on a down wind water landing.
No injuries were sustained and the aircraft sank in about 10 seconds. The dingy inflated
automatically, but was punctured by the tailplane as the aircraft nosed
over before plummeting to the bottom, and was abandoned forcing the
crew to swim to shore.
So, from this you can see that as much info along with
good equipment and research material is a must before even starting
on a venture.
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